In 2026, remote work is no longer tied to a single city or office. Professionals are building careers while moving between countries, time zones, and temporary workspaces.

But behind the freedom of working from anywhere is a hidden reality that many people do not talk about enough. Successful digital nomads depend heavily on systems and infrastructure. Without the right tools, even simple tasks become difficult.

Video calls fail, files get lost, payments become delayed, and productivity disappears quickly. The modern digital nomad needs tools that create stability while constantly moving.

Here are seven essential tools digital nomads rely on in 2026.

• Cloud Workspaces for Organized Remote Work

• Financial Platforms for International Payments

• International Services for Reliable Connectivity

• Password Managers for Security

• VPN Services for Privacy and Safe Browsing

• Communication Platforms for Distributed Teams

• AI Productivity Tools for Faster Workflows

• Digital Nomadism Is Becoming More Infrastructure-Driven

Cloud Workspaces for Organized Remote Work

The first thing every digital nomad needs is a reliable cloud workspace. Working remotely across multiple countries becomes chaotic very quickly without centralized systems for files, notes, tasks, and communication.

Laptops can fail, bags can get lost, and internet connections can become unstable. Storing everything locally creates unnecessary risk.

This is why most remote workers now rely on platforms like Google Workspace, Notion, Microsoft 365, and Dropbox.

Google Workspace remains one of the most widely used productivity ecosystems because it combines email, documents, spreadsheets, cloud storage, and calendar management into a single platform. For distributed teams, the ability to collaborate in real time is extremely valuable.

Notion has also become popular among digital nomads because it combines note-taking, project management, documentation, and knowledge management into one flexible workspace.

These tools create consistency. Whether someone is working from a co-working space in Bali, a cafe in Lisbon, or an apartment in Bangkok, their work environment stays largely the same.

Cloud workspaces also reduce dependency on hardware. If a laptop breaks during travel, work can continue from another device with minimal disruption.

For long-term remote work, that reliability matters more than most people expect.

Financial Platforms for International Payments

Managing money internationally used to be one of the biggest challenges for remote workers.

Traditional banks were not designed for people moving constantly between countries. Currency conversion fees, transfer delays, and international payment restrictions created major friction for freelancers and remote employees.

In 2026, digital nomads increasingly depend on financial platforms built specifically for global work.

Wise has become one of the most trusted solutions for international transfers because it offers transparent exchange rates and lower conversion fees compared to many banks.

Revolut is also widely used because it combines multi-currency accounts, virtual cards, travel spending controls, and mobile banking features into one platform.

Payoneer remains popular among freelancers working with international clients and marketplaces.

These tools help digital nomads receive payments faster, manage multiple currencies, and reduce losses from exchange rates.

Expense tracking is equally important. Constant travel can create uncontrolled spending very quickly. Flights, accommodations, co-working memberships, transport, and insurance costs add up fast.

The most successful digital nomads usually approach finances with discipline. Sustainable remote work depends heavily on maintaining predictable cash flow and financial visibility.

Global mobility becomes much easier when financial infrastructure works smoothly.

International Services for Reliable Connectivity

Internet access is the foundation of digital nomadism. Without reliable connectivity, remote work becomes impossible. Meetings disconnect, cloud applications fail, uploads stop midway, and communication slows down immediately.

For years, travelers depended on local SIM cards in every country they visited. That process was frustrating and inefficient. Finding telecom stores after landing, dealing with language barriers, and switching physical SIM cards repeatedly created unnecessary stress.

In 2026, most experienced digital nomads prefer using an international eSIM instead.

An International eSIM makes cross-border travel much smoother. Remote workers can often activate connectivity before even landing in a new country.

This creates a major advantage during travel days. Internet access works immediately for maps, messaging, ride-sharing apps, banking verification, and work communication.

Consistency is another important benefit. Many remote workers now depend on International eSIM services because they reduce downtime between locations.

This matters professionally. Missing meetings or becoming unreachable during client communication can damage credibility quickly.

For digital nomads moving regularly between countries, connectivity is no longer just a convenience. It is operational infrastructure.

Password Managers for Security

Cybersecurity risks increase significantly when working remotely.

Digital nomads regularly connect to airport Wi-Fi, hotel networks, cafes, co-working spaces, and temporary apartment internet connections. Many of these networks are not secure.

Using weak passwords or storing credentials carelessly creates major risks for both personal and professional systems.

This is why password managers have become essential tools for remote workers.

Platforms like 1Password, Bitwarden, and LastPass help users generate strong passwords, store credentials securely, and synchronize login access across devices.

Instead of remembering dozens of passwords manually, users can protect accounts through encrypted password vaults and multi-factor authentication.

For remote professionals handling company systems, client dashboards, or financial accounts, this layer of security is extremely important.

Password managers also reduce the risk of phishing attacks and credential reuse, which remain some of the most common cybersecurity problems globally.

In distributed work environments, operational security is becoming part of everyday professional responsibility.

VPN Services for Privacy and Safe Browsing

VPN services have become standard tools for remote professionals. A VPN, or virtual private network, encrypts internet traffic and helps protect users when accessing the internet through public or untrusted networks.

Services like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Proton VPN are commonly used by digital nomads because they improve both privacy and security.

Many remote workers access internal company systems, financial platforms, or customer information while traveling. Doing this over public internet connections without protection introduces significant risk.

VPNs also help maintain more stable access to online services across different regions.

Some platforms and websites behave differently depending on the country someone is connecting from. VPNs help reduce these inconsistencies and improve accessibility while traveling.

For freelancers and consultants, using a VPN also demonstrates professionalism and awareness of cybersecurity best practices.

As remote work becomes more global, companies are increasingly expecting workers to follow stronger operational security standards.

Communication Platforms for Distributed Teams

Communication quality often determines whether remote work succeeds or fails.

Digital nomads work across countries and time zones, which means communication systems need to be reliable, flexible, and easy to access from anywhere.

Platforms like Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have become core parts of modern distributed work.

Slack is widely used for team collaboration because it allows fast communication without relying entirely on email. Zoom and Google Meet remain essential for client calls, interviews, workshops, and team meetings.

But modern remote work is becoming increasingly asynchronous.

Many experienced digital nomads now avoid unnecessary meetings and instead rely more on shared documentation, recorded updates, and organized messaging systems.

This helps reduce burnout and creates more flexibility around travel schedules and time zones.

Strong communication infrastructure also creates professional consistency. Clients and employers care less about where someone works from and more about responsiveness, reliability, and clarity.

The right communication tools help maintain that trust.

AI Productivity Tools for Faster Workflows

Artificial intelligence has become deeply integrated into remote work in 2026. AI tools are now helping digital nomads automate repetitive work, summarize information, organize tasks, generate drafts, and accelerate research.

Platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Grammarly, and Perplexity are increasingly part of everyday workflows for remote professionals.

Writers use AI for outlining and editing. Developers use it for debugging and documentation. Marketers use it for content strategy and analysis. Startup founders use it for operational planning and research.

For digital nomads, AI tools are especially valuable because they reduce mental overload.

Travel itself requires constant decision-making. Flights, accommodations, schedules, visas, transportation, and timezone changes all consume attention and energy. AI tools help reduce the amount of manual work needed during busy travel periods.

The professionals gaining the most value from AI are usually those who already understand their field well.

AI works best as an accelerator for skilled workers rather than a replacement for expertise.

As remote work continues evolving, AI literacy is becoming an increasingly important professional advantage.

Digital Nomadism Is Becoming More Infrastructure-Driven

The image of digital nomadism has changed significantly. In the past, the lifestyle was often presented as spontaneous and carefree. In reality, sustainable remote work depends heavily on systems, preparation, and operational reliability.

The most successful digital nomads are usually the people who build strong infrastructure around their work.

Cloud workspaces keep projects organized. Financial platforms simplify international payments. International eSIM services maintain reliable connectivity across borders. VPNs and password managers improve security. Communication systems support distributed collaboration. AI tools reduce workload and improve efficiency.

Together, these tools create stability in an otherwise highly mobile lifestyle.

As companies continue embracing remote and distributed work models, digital nomadism will likely become even more mainstream over the next decade.

The professionals who succeed long term will not necessarily be the ones traveling the most.

They will be the ones who know how to build systems that allow them to work consistently from anywhere in the world.

It suggests freedom without friction, mobility without tradeoffs.

But the reality is more complex. Remote work isn't powered by a single connection. It runs on a layered system of infrastructure that most people never think about until something breaks.

When your video call freezes, your VPN drops, or your access fails at the worst possible time, you start to see the hidden machinery.

To understand remote work properly, you have to look beyond Wi-Fi. What matters is the entire stack that sits underneath it.

What We'll Cover:

• Connectivity Is a System, Not a Signal

• The Cloud Is Your Real Workplace

• Identity Has Replaced Location

• The VPN Bottleneck

• Real Mobility Requires Network Flexibility

• Latency Is the Hidden Constraint

• Hardware Still Matters

• Collaboration Depends on Synchronization

• The Illusion of Simplicity

• Building a Resilient Remote Setup

• Remote Work Is an Infrastructure Problem

Connectivity Is a System, Not a Signal

Wi-Fi is only the last hop in a much larger network. It's the interface, not the infrastructure.

When you join a call or access a system, your data travels through local routers, internet service providers, undersea cables, cloud networks, and finally into the services you depend on. Each layer introduces latency, reliability constraints, and points of failure.

This is why two networks that both show “full bars” can behave very differently. One might route traffic efficiently through stable backbone providers. The other might be congested, poorly peered, or geographically inefficient.

For remote workers, especially those who travel or move between cities, this variability becomes a constant factor. You're not just relying on a connection. You're relying on the quality of the path your data takes.

The Cloud Is Your Real Workplace

Your office is no longer a building. It's a distributed system.

Every tool you use, from document editing to project management, runs on cloud infrastructure. Platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Notion aren't just applications. They're environments where your work lives.

This shift changes the nature of reliability. In a traditional office, your main dependency was local infrastructure. Now, your ability to work depends on global uptime, distributed servers, and content delivery networks.

It also means that performance is tied to geography. The distance between you and a cloud region affects how responsive your tools feel. Even small delays compound over time, especially in collaborative workflows.

Remote work isn't just about accessing tools. It's about accessing them efficiently.

Identity Has Replaced Location

In an office, access was tied to where you were. Inside the network meant trusted, while outside meant restricted.

Remote work breaks that model. Now, identity is the perimeter.

Authentication systems, single sign-on providers, and device trust mechanisms define whether you can work. Tools like Okta and Microsoft Entra ID act as gatekeepers to your entire workflow.

This introduces a new dependency layer. If identity systems fail or misbehave, work stops completely. It doesn't matter how strong your internet connection is. Without authentication, you can't access anything.

This is why remote work infrastructure is tightly coupled with security architecture. Convenience and control are constantly balanced, often in ways that users only notice when friction appears.

The VPN Bottleneck

For many organizations, remote access still runs through virtual private networks. A VPN creates a secure tunnel into corporate systems, but it also introduces overhead.

Traffic is routed through centralized gateways, which can become bottlenecks. Latency increases. Performance drops. Simple tasks feel slower than they should.

Modern architectures are shifting toward zero trust models, where access is granted per request rather than through a single tunnel. But the transition is uneven. Cloudflare is one of the most popular enterprise VPNs in use trusted especially by enterprises.

Many remote workers still operate in hybrid setups, where some tools are cloud-native while others require legacy access paths.

This mismatch creates inconsistency. Some apps feel instant. Others feel like they belong to a different era.

Real Mobility Requires Network Flexibility

One of the promises of remote work is location independence. In practice, this is harder than it sounds.

Moving between networks introduces friction. Public Wi-Fi can be unreliable or insecure. Local SIM cards require setup, verification, and often physical access. Roaming charges can be unpredictable and expensive.

This is where newer connectivity models start to matter. An international e-sim allows you to provision mobile data across countries without swapping physical cards. It removes one layer of operational overhead.

More importantly, it gives you redundancy. If a local network fails, you can switch to a mobile connection instantly. That fallback can be the difference between missing a critical meeting and continuing without disruption.

Remote work isn't just about having a connection. It's about having options when that connection fails.

Latency Is the Hidden Constraint

Most people think in terms of speed. Faster internet is assumed to be better.

But for remote work, latency is often more important than bandwidth. A high-speed connection with poor latency will still feel slow in interactive tasks like video calls, remote desktops, or collaborative editing.

Latency is affected by distance, routing efficiency, and network congestion. It's also harder to control. You can't simply upgrade your plan to fix it.

This is why experienced remote workers optimize for stability over raw speed. A consistent connection with predictable latency is more valuable than a fast but volatile one.

Hardware Still Matters

It's easy to focus entirely on networks and software, but hardware plays a critical role.

Your laptop’s thermal performance affects sustained workloads. Your webcam and microphone influence how you're perceived in meetings. Your router determines how well your local network handles multiple devices.

Even power reliability becomes part of the equation. In some locations, unstable electricity can interrupt work more often than network issues.

Remote work infrastructure extends all the way to the physical layer. Ignoring it creates weak points that show up at the worst times.

Collaboration Depends on Synchronization

Working remotely isn't just about individual productivity. It's also about coordination.

Time zones, asynchronous communication, and real-time collaboration tools all interact in complex ways. A delay in one system can ripple through an entire team’s workflow.

For example, a slow connection during a shared document session can lead to version conflicts. A dropped call can delay decisions. A failed upload can block downstream tasks.

These aren't isolated issues. They're systemic effects of how distributed systems behave under imperfect conditions.

The more distributed your team becomes, the more important infrastructure reliability becomes.

The Illusion of Simplicity

Remote work tools are designed to feel simple. Join a call. Open a document. Send a message.

But this simplicity is an abstraction. Underneath it is a dense network of dependencies, each with its own failure modes.

When everything works, the system feels invisible. When something breaks, the complexity becomes obvious very quickly.

Understanding this helps set realistic expectations. It also changes how you approach your setup. Instead of optimizing for convenience alone, you start optimizing for resilience.

Building a Resilient Remote Setup

A robust remote work setup is not defined by a single tool or connection. It's defined by how well it handles failure.

This means having backup connectivity, whether through mobile data or an international e-sim. It means choosing tools that degrade gracefully under poor network conditions. It means understanding where your bottlenecks are and planning around them.

It also means accepting that no setup is perfect. The goal isn't to eliminate failure, but to reduce its impact.

Remote Work Is an Infrastructure Problem

The narrative around remote work often focuses on lifestyle: freedom, flexibility, and autonomy.

Those benefits are real, but they're built on top of infrastructure. Without reliable systems, the experience breaks down quickly.

What looks like a simple setup is actually a distributed architecture that spans networks, cloud platforms, identity systems, and physical hardware.

The better you understand that architecture, the better you can navigate it.

Wi-Fi is just the surface. The real work happens underneath.

Join my Applied AI newsletter to learn how to build and ship real AI systems. Practical projects, production-ready code, and direct Q&A. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

Hackers know that people often use weak passwords, forget to update software, or click on the wrong link in a moment of distraction. That’s why remote teams need a security plan built for how they work.

In this article, we’ll explore seven ways to keep your remote workforce safe. These steps are simple, doable, and based on real-life habits.

Table of Contents

• Turn On Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

• Keep Software and Devices Updated

• Lock Down Home Wi-Fi Networks

• Teach Your Workforce How to Spot Phishing

• Use VPNs on Public Wi-Fi

• Use Activity Reporting Tools

• Limit Access to What’s Needed

• Bringing It All Together

Turn On Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Think of MFA as a second lock on your digital front door. Even if someone steals a password, they won’t get far without the second key — like a code sent to your phone or an app confirmation.

Let’s say Maria, a remote designer, uses MFA for her work account. She logs in with her password, and then a code pops up on her phone. Even if a hacker steals her password from a phishing email, they’d still need her phone to get in. Without that, they’re locked out.

Most tools — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom — support MFA. You can usually enable it in the account settings, and once it’s set up, it becomes second nature.

Keep Software and Devices Updated

Updates fix security holes. If your software isn’t up to date, it’s like leaving windows open in a storm. Hackers actively look for devices running older versions of software — they know exactly where the weak spots are.

Encourage your team to enable automatic updates on every device they use. If possible, use remote management tools like Microsoft Intune or Jamf to push updates directly.

For example, if James delays updating his operating system, his laptop might still have a flaw that lets hackers install malware silently. A quick update could close that door for good.

Lock Down Home Wi-Fi Networks

A weak home Wi-Fi password is an open invitation. If a neighbour or a stranger parked outside connects to your Wi-Fi, they might see your traffic, or worse, access your devices.

To secure your home WIFI:

1. Change the default router password. Never leave the admin login as “admin/admin” or similar.

2. Use a strong, unique Wi-Fi password. Aim for at least 12 characters (letters, numbers, symbols).

3. Enable WPA3 (or WPA2 if WPA3 isn’t available). Look in your router’s wireless security settings. If you see “WPA3 Personal,” pick that. If not, pick “WPA2 Personal” (sometimes listed as WPA2-AES).

4. Hide your network name (SSID) if possible. This isn’t foolproof, but it makes you a bit less visible.

WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) is the older standard that uses AES encryption to scramble data. It’s far stronger than the old WPA or WEP systems.

WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 3) is the newer standard. It adds even stronger encryption and makes it harder for hackers to guess passwords. With WPA3, each device’s data is encrypted separately, and it includes built-in protection against “brute-force” attacks (where someone tries many passwords in rapid succession).

When your router is set to use WPA2 or, ideally, WPA3, it means all devices—laptops, phones, tablets—talk to the router using a secure “language” that’s very hard for outsiders to crack.

You can offer a simple guide that walks them through this in under 10 minutes. If someone isn’t tech-savvy, a quick team call can help them set it up. This one-time step makes a big difference.

Teach Your Workforce How to Spot Phishing

The easiest way into a system isn’t through code — it’s through people. A phishing email can look like a password reset, a message from IT, or even a job update. One click, and malware is in.

For example, Tom, a project manager, gets an email that looks like it’s from Dropbox, asking him to log in to view a file. The login page looks real, but it’s fake. He enters his password, and now the attacker has access.

Here are a few steps to spot phishing:

1. Check the sender’s email address carefully. Does it match the company domain exactly? Watch for small typos (like “micr0soft.com” instead of “microsoft.com”).

2. Hover over links without clicking. If the link text says “company-portal.com” but the URL preview shows “evil-site.com/login,” it’s a red flag.

3. Look for spelling and grammar errors. Official company communications rarely have glaring mistakes. If the message has awkward wording or misspellings, think twice.

4. Be wary of urgent or threatening language. “Your account will be suspended unless you click now” is a common trick. Legitimate organizations usually give you time to verify and don’t demand immediate action.

5. Do not download attachments from unknown senders. If an attachment seems odd (e.g., “Invoice_final.7z” instead of a simple PDF), do not open it.

6. Verify unexpected requests. If someone asks you to share credentials, wire money, or provide sensitive data, call or Slack the person directly to confirm. Don’t rely on the email itself.

7. Watch for generic greetings. “Dear User” or “Hello Employee” instead of your name can indicate a mass-mailed phishing attempt.

Regular training makes people pause before clicking. Use quick, interactive sessions (there are many free ones online) every few months. Encourage your team to report suspicious emails — create a “Better Safe Than Sorry” culture.

Take this quiz to test your phishing defence.

Use VPNs on Public Wi-Fi

Working from coffee shops, airports, or co-working spaces can be risky. Public networks are easy to spy on. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) encrypts internet traffic, so even if someone tries to spy, all they’ll see would be scrambled data.

There are many reliable VPN services to choose from, and some companies even set up their own. Encourage remote workers to use a VPN any time they’re not on a trusted network.

Use Activity Reporting Tools

When people work from different places on different schedules, it’s easy to lose visibility. Activity reporting tools help you see how systems are used without crossing privacy lines.

These tools can show:

• Login times and IP addresses

• File access history

• App usage patterns

Imagine a scenario where Rob’s account logs in from a country he’s never been to. That’s a red flag. With activity monitoring in place, you’d catch it instantly and reset his credentials.

Tools like Teramind, ActivTrak, or even built-in reports from Google or Microsoft accounts can help. Used wisely, they improve productivity by giving insights into how time and tools are used — while also flagging suspicious behavior early.

Limit Access to What’s Needed

The more people who can access sensitive data, the greater the risk. So don’t give everyone full access, “just in case.” Instead, follow the principle of least privilege: give each person just the tools and files they need.

For instance, your marketing intern probably doesn’t need access to your financial reports. And your developer doesn’t need HR records. Role-based access keeps things cleaner and safer.

Tools like Okta, Azure Active Directory, or even folder permissions in Google Drive or Dropbox let you fine-tune who sees what. You can also track access logs to spot strange activity.

Bringing It All Together

Cybersecurity isn’t about locking everything down so tightly that no one can work. It’s about building smart habits and using the right tools so your remote team can work confidently and safely.

Start small. Maybe pick two or three things to focus on this month. Once they become part of your routine, layer in the next ones. With each step, you’re building a safer and more productive work environment — for everyone.

For more articles on cybersecurity, join the Stealth Security newsletter.

As the world continues to adapt to the new normal of remote work, the demand for remote developers has never been higher.

Companies are now realizing the benefits of hiring remote workers, including cost savings and access to a wider pool of talent.

If you're looking for a remote developer job, here are some tips to help you land your dream remote developer job.

I have been working remotely as a developer for many years now. In this article I'll share my experiences and advice with you so you can take advantage of the latest remote work trend.

Focus on Networking

Network, network, network. Networking is key to finding any job, and remote developer jobs are no exception.

Join online communities, attend virtual events, and reach out to people in your network to let them know you're looking for a remote developer job.

Photo by Unsplash

I have done this countless times throughout my carer. Attending meet ups has brought me great success, and helped me get my latest developer role as a Software Engineer at a remote blockchain start-up. I even got to go to Italy for an off site meet up (where I enjoyed lots of good food and drink).

If you have a limited network, I can't stress enough the value in reaching out to start up founders on platforms such as LinkedIn. It is literally there for the purpose of professional networking, yet hardly any developers I have met use it for this.

Key Networking Takeaways

• Networking can significantly increase your chances of finding a remote developer job.

• Use platforms such as LinkedIn and meetup.com to start out on your networking journey.

Brush Up on Your Skills

As with any job – and even more so with tech – staying current with the latest technologies and trends is essential to landing a remote developer job.

Consider taking online courses or earning certifications to demonstrate your commitment to staying up-to-date.

Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@timmossholder?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Tim Mossholder / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit)

It can also benefit you if you add some projects to your portfolio that utilise the skills you learn along the way. You can use these to sell yourself when it comes to interviews.

For example, I have built out a few projects lately that use Prisma, which is becoming a popular ORM for working with Postgres and NodeJS. I used the projects to sell myself during interviews and highlighted how I can use it, what I learned, and how I can add value to the company that is interviewing me immediately.

To find out what the latest tech trends are, note down the most common requirements in job descriptions. Go through a few interviews and see what they want to talk about, then simply adapt once you discover what those in-demand skills are.

This is helpful, because while there are a lot of cool technologies out there, many of them might not be helpful when it comes to getting a job. Most companies primarily use tried-and-true solutions that have been around a while. Even when they do use new tools, it's rarer.

By learning these key new skills, not only will it benefit you immediately but it will show any company looking to hire you that you have a desire to learn and constantly improve. This is something that will seriously help your chances of securing a remote position as a software engineer / developer.

Key Skills Takeaways

• Learning the most in-demand tools and technologies and keeping up to date will significantly enhance your chances of getting a remote developer job.

• Create projects that you can use to sell yourself and talk about. This is so valuable when it comes to showcasing the value that you can bring to a company.

Customize Your Résumé and Cover Letter

When applying for remote developer jobs, it's important to tailor your résumé and cover letter to the specific job and company you're applying to. Make sure to highlight any relevant experience you have and how it makes you a good fit for the position.

Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/pt-br/@vantaymedia?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Van Tay Media / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit)

To customize your résumé and cover letter, you should first research the company and position you are applying for. Look at the job description and requirements, and make sure that your résumé and cover letter highlight your relevant skills and experiences that match what the company is looking for.

Additionally, use language and terminology that is specific to the industry or field you are applying for. You may also consider including specific examples or accomplishments that demonstrate your qualifications for the position.

For example, if you are applying for a remote job at Stripe, you need to go and do some research on the tech stack, values, basic info, vision and mission of Stripe. Really get to understand the company you are applying for as this will come across in your résumé and cover letter.

Aside from this, think about what the person reading your résumé is looking for. Not only do they want to see your skills, values, and carer highlights but they also are going to be looking at how hiring you will mitigate the risks that come with hiring engineers.

Recruiting talent is expensive for a company, so as a result they want to know that hiring you is not going to be a big risk. So make sure that you present the relevant details in your résumé / cover letter.

Finally, think about the core aspects of remote work and how soft skills such as communication, ability to work independently, and honesty are of huge value. Try to demonstrate these traits during interviews.

Key Résumé and Cover Letter Takeaways

• Tailor your résumé and cover letter for both remote work and the company you are applying to.

• Highlight points and skills that will help the employer see how hiring you will be a low risk investment.

• Cover how you can add value straight away.

Use Developer-Focused Job Boards

Job boards are a great way to find remote jobs. But most of them out there are tailored to a broader audience, so sometimes they can make it harder to filter out jobs you don't want.

Not only this, but the competition is higher. Instead, using niche job boards for developers is a great way to lower the completion you will be facing but also find incredible opportunities at the same time.

I personally use a variety of different job boards to help me find roles. Here is a quick list of the job boards I use and recommend:

1. Devremote (Every type of developer job)

2. Web3.career (Web 3 specific)

3. 4dayweek.io (In the name, four days a week jobs)

4. remotefrontendjobs (Frontend only jobs)

5. RubyOnRemote (Ruby jobs)

6. jobsinjs (JavaScript jobs)

All of these job boards are awesome and I love using them.

Quick tip here - I recommend finding the jobs using these job boards, then searching for the company on LinkedIn and contacting the CTO / People in charge of recruitment. This can help you get yourself ahead of everyone else. I do it all the time and it works really well, as very few people do this kind of thing.

Key Job Board Takeaways

• Use niche job boards with a developer focus. They provide much better opportunities and have filters that are aimed at engineers/developers.

• Reach out to people in charge of recruitment via LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Utilising the ideas in this article has helped me land many interviews and job offers from remote-first tech companies over the last four years. I would recommend them to anybody who is serious about getting a remote developer position.

Don't get me wrong, getting a remote developer job can be challenging. But given the way the world is heading and the eagerness of companies to cut costs where possible, remote work is here to stay. That is welcome news for us developers who now have more opportunities than ever to build a flexible and awesome life.

Finding a remote job as a developer can be tricky. You want to work for a company that recognizes the value of remote workers, and you want to be sure that the company will support and encourage your remote working style.

If you’re a developer looking for an opportunity to work from home, only a handful of jobs can really provide you with great flexibility, a supportive environment, and manageable workloads.

If you're reading this, you probably want a nice list of companies that offer remote work. Unfortunately, most of the lists out there tend to be outdated or are filled with jobs that are not 100% remote.

With that in mind, in this article you will find a list of actual companies that hire remote developers in one way or another. You will also learn what these companies do and how they stack up against each other.

What Are the Benefits of Working Remotely?

Working remotely is an increasingly popular trend. It offers a level of flexibility, autonomy, and freedom not found in other work situations. In addition to that, remote work can also open the door to increased productivity and creativity.

Nicholas Bloom conducted an experiment and found that remote workers worked 9.5 % longer and were 13% more productive than their in-office counterparts. Below, I'll share some of the benefits of working remotely.

1. Working remotely saves time

Employees who work remotely don’t have to spend time commuting to work, and can thus manage their own schedule.

Also, some people perform better at different times of the day. For example, one person may be a morning person, while another is more productive in the evenings.

As long as you meet deadlines, it doesn’t matter what time of day you do your work.

2. You have peace and quiet when working remotely

Offices can be noisy, distracting, and generally disruptive. Sure, they can be productive spaces, but they're often anything but quiet.

Remote work allows you to escape the daily grind and go to a quiet location where you can concentrate on work.

Whether you choose to work from home or not, having peace and quiet during the working day can be the key to greater productivity, more motivation, and less stress.

3. Remote work can bring health and happiness

If you commute every day and work in an office, you might not be living as healthily as you could be. Remote developers are often happier, healthier and much more productive.

A recent report entitled the "State of Remote Engineering" captured sentiments from software developers across a range of topics, including remote work, compensation, burnout, payout, and productivity.

A whopping 75% of the developers surveyed mentioned they want to work remotely at least three days a week.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

The study found that 68% of respondents are able to get more meaningful work done when working remotely or from home. In contrast, only 32% reported they are more productive in an office environment.

Important reasons for this were that working remotely gives people the freedom to make their own decisions and to be responsible for those decisions.

4. Remote work can help give you work-life balance

The key to a good work-life balance is to structure your day effectively and make sure you are spending enough time on both your work and home tasks.

Developers who feel like they have a sense of achievement are more productive. Other benefits include:

1. Taking a break when you need one.
2. Spending more time with family.
3. Not rushing to catch a train or spending time sitting in traffic.

5. Working remotely lets you personalise your office

The freedom to work remotely allows you not only to work when you want, how you want, and wherever you want. It provides you with the ability to establish your own office space and personalise it however you like.

You can create a truly inspirational workspace with the help of your favourite photos, paintings, plants, or anything else you might find that brings you joy.

This is all about making your work area totally yours – a completely inspiring environment. No one can judge what you like or dislike.

What Are the Best Remote Companies for Developers?

The remote work revolution is in full swing, and there’s a lot of online chatter about the best companies for remote work.

In this article, you will find a compiled list of the top 10 companies for developers to work remotely. This list is by no means exhaustive but should give you a good starting point of where to look for your next employer.

1. Intergiro

Screenshot from integiro website

Intergiro is an all-in-one platform that provides multi-currency bank accounts, card issuance, and card acquisition across Europe. Their services enable anyone to embed banking functionality into their website and app, creating opportunities for new and innovative product experiences.

Intergiro provides both hybrid and fully remote options to its employees. They are committed to building a remote-friendly company and make work simpler, more pleasant, and more fulfilling for their people.

Although a remote-first company, the company boasts hubs in luxurious coworking spaces in Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and Poland. The availability of these coworking spaces has allowed Intergiro to attract individuals who prefer to work side-by-side with like-minded colleagues

2. Automattic

Screenshot from Automattic Website

Automattic, Inc. is a software company, with its most famous product inarguably being WordPress. They are based in San Francisco, CA.

Automattic is the parent company of WordPress, WooCommerce, Tumblr, and several other web applications.

Automattic has long had a remote-first working environment that has even been the subject of various articles.

With workers in 96 countries, Automattic emphasises flexibility, autonomy, and an optimal work-life balance with open vacation days, paid sabbaticals every five years, and generous parental leave.

3. Zapier

Screenshot from Zapier website

Zapier is a web application that creates and automates connections between apps. Using Zapier, a user can easily create workflows and implement custom automatizations to smoothen their work

Zapier has been a 100% remote company since its establishment in 2011, and now boasts over 200 teammates in 24+ countries.

The company places a high degree of value on autonomy and employee ownership of their own work, and rewards employees with a flexible vacation policy and a profit-sharing system.

To build team spirit across the distance, the company also holds twice-annual all-company retreats.

4. InVision

Screenshot from Invision website

A software company focused on collaborative design tools, InVision has worked to become a go-to name in remote work since its establishment.

InVision motivates its globe-spanning workforce with a monthly allowance for work and self-care activities, an annual fund for self-development, and generous budgets for new hires to fully outfit their home offices, as well as office refreshment budgets every two years for existing employees.

5. Abstract

screenshot from Abstract website

Abstract is a web application designed for designers and developers that assist with collaboration on web and mobile projects. They currently have over 7,000 design teams signed up for the platform.

With 80% of their workforce being remote, Abstract is a remote-first company, although they are currently based entirely within the United States.

The company shows its investment in employees’ work-life balance by establishing four-day workweeks, along with unlimited paid time off and a range of other benefits, including pet insurance and adjustable work hours for caregivers.

6. Trakstar

Screenshot from Trackstar website

Trakstar is a software suite that empowers companies’ human resources to best manage and track their employees, all the way from the hiring stage through employee retention.

A remote-first company, Trakstar hires globally and provides a number of generous perks to their worldwide employee base.

These benefits include flexible time off for their workers, ample employee development resources for their staff, and bonuses and financial compensation (dependent on the specific country of hire).

7. Doist

Screenshot from Doist website

Doist is a software company specialising in productivity apps and tools, with a goal of providing software solutions that help people accomplish their goals.

Doist works on a remote basis with no limitations on employee locations. To ensure easier onboarding, Doist also assigns a mentor to newly-onboarded employees, and offers the possibility of flying out to the mentor’s location for a week in order to work side by side with a colleague at the beginning of employment.

The company also covers the fee for a coworking space of the employee’s choice, and has a budget for work-related services, personal development, and work-related hardware.

8. Frontastic

Frontastic is a company that provides a platform for e-commerce, brands, and mobile-focused startups to create mobile-first experiences, with a focus on delivering complete platforms for mobile-first e-commerce.

The Frontastic team is remote-first and spread around the world. For team-building, the company offers perks like three company meetups a year and a yearly five-day retreat.

Outside of these meetups, Frontastic offers flexible working hours and a generous working allowance.

9. Stripe

Screenshot from Stripe website

Stripe is a platform that companies use to collect and process payments. It allows business owners to create an app or website with a checkout flow that connects to their Stripe account and processes transactions with customers. This can be used for recurring billing, for example with subscriptions, or for one-time payments.

Stripe was ahead of the curve in implementing both remote and hybrid working models, hiring their first batch of remote-only engineers back in 2013.

The company offers flexible working hours, caregiver leave, and a monthly allowance for employee wellness.

10. Twitch

Screenshot from Twitch website

Twitch is a global leader in live streaming and video game streaming, with more than 5 million active users a month. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company has offices in nine countries.

Twitch is remote-friendly, although employees must still be based around one of its offices. It provides commuter benefits, flexible paid time off, and monthly contributions to employee wellness.

Wrapping up

I hope this article has helped you out if you're looking to work remotely as a developer but don't know where to start.

Remote work is a growing trend in the tech industry, and there are a lot of great resources out there to help you get started. In addition, I hope this enables you to find a job that suits your personality and lifestyle.

If you learned something new or enjoyed reading this article, please share it so that others can see it. Until then, see you in the next post!

You can also find me on Twitter @Davis_McDavid.

And you can read more articles like this here.

Indeed, a bit more than two years ago, I started my first full-time job as a Software Engineer. And at the same time, I began my first remote experience.

Nowadays, I'm 23 years old, living in Europe, working for a company based in Singapore, and planning to start a digital nomad life in Asia.

Based on my experience, I've put together 15 working from home tips to help you stay productive. I categorized these tips into 5 categories that you'll discover just below.

Just keep in mind that these tips are based on my personal experience, readings, and documentation. Everyone is different, and some of them may not work with your needs and goals.

Tip #1 – Build a strong work-life balance

One of the most impactful categories you need to take care of is your work-life balance.

Yes, you read about this in all remote-work articles, but what does it mean?

When you work remotely, it's easy to cut yourself out from your life. Your work can start overwhelming you because you feel like you're only doing that.

Even if you're passionate about what you are doing, it's essential to know how to step away from it to relax and stay productive in the long run.

Here are some tips to achieve a work-life balance.

1. Take breaks and go outside

It seems simple, right? Remote work doesn't mean staying at home all day. I highly recommend taking breaks and going outside to refresh your mind and leave your workplace.

What about eating outside during your lunchtime or even going for a walk in the afternoon?

2. Take up a sport or activity that takes your mind off things

To avoid feeling burnout from your job, take a step back and practice a relaxing and mind-changing activity.

Many people like to play a sport, while others prefer simply making time for other activities or hobbies that are different from what they do at work.

3. Split your computer

One of the most challenging parts of working from home is differentiating your work time from your non-work time.

If you're using the same computer for your work and your side-projects/chill time, this tip is for you.

Split your browser configuration

Nowadays, most browsers allow you to create profiles. I recommend that you make two profiles, one for your work and one for non-work time.

This allows you to disconnect easier when you're outside of work. At the same time, it helps organize your bookmarks and sessions (for example: if you're using the same tools between your work and your side-projects).

Create another session on your computer

This isn't something that I do personally. But, I read a lot about people using two different sessions.

It sounds like the "ultimate" solution if you want to keep these two spaces independent.

4. Don't setup work notifications on your phone

This tip can be controversial depending on what you're doing as a remote worker. But, still, I think it's something essential if you want to keep a work-life balance.

I don't like to have work applications or notifications on my phone for many reasons. Remote work means asynchronous life. Your co-workers can work at different hours than you. If you want to avoid waking up with work notifications or receiving messages while you're outside with friends, this is something you should avoid.

Note: If your work requires setting up some applications, there are many ways to remove the notifications after a defined hour. That can be an alternative.

5. Work from a co-working space

Another piece of advice that I've heard a lot is to work remotely from outside your home. Well, it's a bit controversial with this article title, but it's a genius way to keep a work-life balance if you can afford it and feel comfortable working in a public space.

If you're not feeling productive at home, even after reading and trying many things, working from a co-working space can help you.

Nowadays, co-working spaces are everywhere. If you can, try one of them out to see if it works for you.

Tip #2 – Create your own working environment

Now that we've talked about the importance of keeping a work-life balance, let's dig a bit more into your workspace and how you can improve it.

1. Choose or create a workspace that stimulates you

While working remotely, you have the freedom to create a workspace where you feel good. Be imaginative and bring what stimulates you around your desk. It can be plants, books, or anything that you like.

If you're a digital nomad or a frequent traveler, you can select a coffee shop, a co-working space, or a flat that inspires you.

A nice place to work is always a good source of motivation.

2. Separate your workspace from your sleeping one

I know that's not possible for everyone, but try as much as possible to separate your workspace from your bedroom.

If you wake up and work in the same place as you sleep, you will certainly have the feeling that you're always doing the same thing. It's not motivating to stay in the same room all day. When you reach your bed, you will still be in your "working" room.

3. Declutter your desk

Many articles and guides about productivity share this tip, but decluttering your desk and keeping it clean and minimal can help free your mind and help you focus more.

Again, it's a matter of personal opinion, but I like to keep my remote working space clean and simple to focus only on what matters.

Tip #3 – Socialize at work

Social aspects are essential as a remote worker. They help you stay motivated and avoid this inner feeling of working alone (even if you're not).

1. Schedule virtual time with your colleagues

Remote work doesn't mean staying away from your colleagues. Even if it can seem socially distancing at times, one essential point is to keep socializing.

Don't be shy – ask your colleagues for a 15-30 minutes coffee meeting to get to know them better.

If you're not working as a freelancer on alone on your project, there are many online events and communities that allow you to talk with like-minded people and share a coffee with them.

2. Try to schedule a social meeting each week in your company

If you're leading a remote company or working at one, this point is for you. Don't hesitate to schedule or ask for a social meeting each week. For example, it can be an hour where everyone meets up online and plays an online game together. The possibilities are endless.

Let me give you feedback on my experience. I'm working at Cococart. We create a product that allows you to create a simple, beautiful store in minutes. We're a remote worldwide company: all the team is spread worldwide, and some are frequent travelers.

Each week, we do one "Campfire" – an hour and a half meeting where we meet each other, talk about our highlights and lowlights of the week, give kudos to our co-workers, and play a game together. It can seem like a short time but trust me, it really helps build up significant team motivation and spirit.

One of the most awkward parts of working remotely is to feel alone. This point is only one example, but feel free to socialize using your preferred way.

Tip #4 – Become a time-management expert

To improve your productivity as a remote worker, time also matters. Make sure you're using yours wisely.

1. Try to have a set work schedule

I don't want to say that you shouldn't work hard or count your hours. I work a lot and don't always follow this rule.

I want to share that it's better to have at least a vague idea of when you start your day and finish it. It can be a good thing for your work-life balance, staying focused, and getting your work in the dedicated timeframe.

But as with all the tips I'm sharing in this article, it's a matter of personal opinion. I often shift my work schedule depending on a meeting or if I want to work more one day, and so on. Remote work gives you more flexibility and freedom. So it would be sad to not benefit from it! Just do what's best for you.

2. Schedule your tasks

This advice applies to many topics, but you will probably work more efficiently and achieve your goals easier if you schedule your day.

As a remote worker, it can be a good motivation factor. An organized day with focused work results in more time for yourself, lets you start working on something new at your job, or anything that you like.

Tip #5 – Learn to deep focus

Practicing some deep focus sessions is your ally if you want to skyrocket your productivity. Let me give you three tips that can help with it.

1. Listen to focus songs

Using focus/chill music can help you stay productive and enter into a deep focus. It's often an excellent way to hack your productivity.

Here are some examples of websites where you can listen to that kind of music for free:

• freeCodeCamp radio
• LofiGirl on YouTube
• Cafe Music BGM channel on YouTube

2. Use the "Do not disturb" option on your phone

Nowadays, we always receive notifications on our phones. Most modern devices have a "Do not disturb" feature that allows you to disable notifications when entering "Work" mode.

If you don't have this option, tons of applications like Forest in the store allow you to "restrict" your phone and enter focus mode.

3. Limit distractions

A bit related to the last tip, limiting distractions helps you stay focused. Review your environment and try to remove or push away all objects that annoy you while working.

Here are some examples: put away your phone, close YouTube videos while working, switch off the TV, and so on.

Wrapping up

Thank you for reading this article. I hope it provided you with insightful tips to improve your remote work life or even start working remotely.

I regularly deliver content about web development, personal growth as a developer, and my journey as an aspiring digital nomad and remote software engineer. If you don't want to miss them, I invite you to follow me on Twitter.

There is no better time than now to find a remote job and to work from home.

There are plenty of roles that can be done remotely, especially in the technology sector.

From product design and product management, to graphic design, marketing, sales and web development – web development jobs are one of the most popular and highly sought after roles.

In this article you'll see some of the ways you can find a remote developer role, when you're still early in your career.

We'll first go over how this shift towards remote work has occured in the last few years, as well as some of the pros and cons of working remotely.

Then, we'll see some strategies to help you land a remote developer role and some ways to stand out to future employers.

If you only want to just see some of the most popular remote job boards, skip to this part.

The Shift Towards Remote Work

The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise in the beginning of 2020.

As everything started to shut down, a lot of workers were required and encouraged to work from home, making many companies remote overnight.

It's safe to say that the pandemic completely changed working life. What initially was a forced pivot is turning out to be a new world and a new way of working which is likely here to stay.

People's relationship with work has started to change. The view on fixed work spaces and workers needing to gather under the same office roof – something that has been considered the norm since the Industrial Revolution – has started to change.

With electronic means of communication such as e-mail and chat services widely available, along with communication platforms and shared documents, there doesn't seem to be an urgent need for many types of workers to be in the same building anymore.

Many people are now also reconsidering the idea of clocking in and out of work at set, fixed days and hours and becoming more aware of their time and what matters the most to them. After all, some may be more productive during the weekends and get more done on those days, instead of solely during a strict Monday to Friday and 9 - 5 schedule.

The Pros and Cons of Remote Work

The Pros and Cons of remote work are relative to every individual.

But in general, some pros of working remote that benefit both the companies and the people working at the companies, are the following:

• Flexible working schedules and locations typically increase productivity and performance.
• The above point leads to employees having more autonomy and independence which in turn leads to a happier workforce. Employees that feel trusted by their employers and have that level of freedom are more content with their jobs, efficient with their time, and more motivated to get their work done.
• Remote work allows you to travel and work from any part of the globe and become a digital nomad, making your own work schedule. When working in tech specifically, all you need is a good internet connection, a laptop, and good skills.
• With remote work you also place emphasis on producing quality work where you are highly focused on the task for a set amount of time that works for you. In a 9 - 5 job the bulk of the work for the day may be finished before 5 o'clock, but you'll still need to remain at the office and possibly not be as productive as you were during the remaining time.
• Office space is expensive, with companies paying thousands of dollars for office space every year per employee. Remote work would cut those costs, saving significant amounts of money.
• Remote work also means that long commutes to get into office everyday are no longer needed. Commuting often means spending a lot of time stuck in traffic, spending money on gas, or using crowded public transportation systems everyday. People can spend a lot of time can commuting - it's not uncommon for commuters to spend more than two hours each day getting to the office and going back home. This is often a cause of major stress. Not commuting to and from work can save a significant amount of time and money.
• With remote work, there is the opportunity to form distributed teams and hire people from all around the globe. This is more representative of the world as it is. Having people with diverse perspectives and backgrounds, with each having a wealth of different experiences to draw from, would in turn result in creating better products and services.
• With remote work you also get to spend more time with your family and loved ones.
• "With great freedom comes great responsibility" is a phrase that stands true when it comes to remote work. Often remote workers have a greater connection to the company's mission, which leads to greater motivation and sense of purpose. If you are not aligned with the company's values and don't find the work rewarding, it may be tempting to not put in the effort when there is no one watching you like there is in a 9 - 5 traditional office job.

There are also some potential cons of remote working:

• There are concerns around productivity. For example, a lack of a dedicated space and set up in your home where you can work comfortably and quietly could potentially lead to a decrease in productivity.
• A lack of a good Wifi connection, Internt speed, and decent voice quality could lead to troubles in communication. When a connection is not consistent and there are frequent disconnections, it makes communicating with team members difficult. Similarly, having poor voice quality, a microphone that doesn't work properly, or a lot of background noise can be distraction for others and make communicating over meetings harder.
• With remote work, some workers may be more prone than others to procrastination, getting easily distracted and managing their time efficiently. A good answer to that could be the Pomodoro Technique and time blocking tasks.
• Remote working may prove challenging for workers that have family members to frequently tend to and who need their attention.
• With remote work, work-life balance can be tricky at times. For this reason, some workers may enjoy the commute, the travelling to work and the removal from their home as they see it as a physical separation between work and social life. It can be a way to divide work from personal life and whatever issues are associated with that.
• Another potential issue is the difficulty in making connections and networking. This can be a challenge especially for juniors and folks that are early in their careers, and not so much for senior staff members who have developed their network over the years. Offices can be a good place for networking, but there are plenty of online communities available now, with new ones being created frequently, that can help you form connections in the industry.
• Differences in communication skills between team members can also be challenging. Communicating your thoughts in a clear and concice manner is sometimes tricky over email or a Zoom call. It can also be tough to break down problems, explain your thought process, and explain complex technical topics in simple words to technical and non-technical members of a team. And all this is necessary when working remotely. Remote work involves a lot of collaboration, so getting messages across clearly is vital, otherwise there will be frequent misunderstandings.

How to Appeal to Remote Companies as a Developer

Not all jobs can be done remotely.

It's no surprise that tech companies are paving the way and leading this shift towards remote work.

That being said, these tech roles are highly skilled - they are what are known as "knowledge jobs".

Most companies ask for a couple of years of experience, but how do you get that experience when you have none and no one will hire you because you lack that vital experience?

It's like a chicken and egg problem, and this can be even more of a problem when applying for a remote position.

How do you showcase your skills in an affective way when you are still early on in your career?

Companies want to know that you have the skills required and that you are capable of doing the job.

Not only that, but getting a remote role involves a lot more competition. The talent pool for selecting candidates is larger than ever, compared to what it typically is for traditional office jobs.

There are many people applying from all over the world just for one single position, since there are a lot of people wanting to work remotely and have that flexible schedule.

Listed below are some of the things you can do that may help you stand out in your remote job search as an early career developer.

There is the aspect of luck that plays role in every job search, but these points can help showcase your skills to prospective employers when you don't have that much experience.

Prep your GitHub Account for the Job

Include projects that you are proud of and are the most excited about.

Also, by showcasing projects that are related to the position you are applying to, you can discuss the different challenges you faced, the problems that arose, how you went about solving those problems and what you learned overall.

Make sure that your projects are well documented by creating README files for each one.

This way you can document your thought process and intentions while also showcasing your written communication skills which are important when working in tech.

Contribute to Open Source

Contributing to Open Source can be intimidating as a beginner, but it is worthwhile and does make a difference when applying to jobs. It's something that many employers appreciate.

You can start off by making small contributions. For example, you can correct grammar errors and typos and create sufficient documentation for projects that lack it.

This shows that you are able to communicate well and collaborate with other developers remotely and asynchronously to solve a problem. And all that is done in public.

A good place to start contributing is by checking out the freeCodeCamp repository for issues with the label "fist timers only".

Below are some resources to help you learn more about contributing to Open Source:

• The Ultimate Guide to Open Source
• The Definitive Guide to Contributing to Open Source
• How to Contribute to Open Source Projects – A Beginner's Guide

Create a Personal Website

A personal website is your own personal corner on the Internet and a way to show the world – including potential employers – who you are on a more personal level.

Include some information about yourself and the projects you are most proud of. Make sure all links are working and there are no typos.

The important information that employers are looking for needs to stand out clearly and easily at first sight.

Include an up to date CV/résumé and a way to contact you - preferably a professional e-mail address.

Below are some resources to help you with creating a portfolio website:

• Create a Portfolio Website Using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Bootstrap 5
• Build Your Own Developer Portfolio Website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Create a Portfolio Website – A Beginner Developer's Guide

Learn in Public

Learning in public and getting involved with the developer community can accelarate your career and help you make valuable connections.

It's a way to showcase that you have those communication skills that employers are looking for.

Whether it be blogging, writing about your coding journey, documenting what you are currently learning, or giving a talk at a local meetup, all help create your own sort of personal brand. People get an insight into who you are on a more personal level.

Including links of all the ways in which you are learning in public and engaging with the community shows a level of dedication and that you're serious about getting into tech.

You can share your findings, explain how you solved a specific problem in a blog post, or craft lists of helpful resources to share. These activities not only help you understand everything better, but will help others that are also learning.

Below are some resources to help you get started with technical writing:

• Writing Tips for Software Developers – How to Become a Better Tech Writer
• Technical Writing for Beginners – An A-Z Guide to Tech Blogging Basics
• How to Become a Technical Writer

Gain Experience Working Remotely

Having prior experience working remotely will likely increase your chances of getting another remote job, compared to someone who doesn't have that experience and know-how.

It shows that you are productive in remote settings.

Even if you are working in a different field and are not a remote worker, but want to transition into a remote tech role, you can negotiate a hybrid role at your current company. You might be able to work remotely 1 - 2 days a week, and the rest of the week to work from the office.

Gain Experience Working as a Developer

If you want to get a remote developer job as your first tech job, it may be more difficult than getting an traditional office job. Getting your foot in the door as a junior is hard enough, without the remote aspect.

Although this is in no way impossible to achieve, it may be more realistic to have a couple of years of experience under your belt. This can make the possibility of working remotely more likely.

It's easier for intermediate and senior level developers to land a remote role, compared to those searching for their first job in tech.

Onboarding a junior member on the team remotely and training them can prove to be challenging. This is especially true when you don't have much direct supervision and mentorship and they end up spending a lot of time alone.

Focus on learning the skills needed and building them to the point where you can market yourself well and stand out from the crowd. The more well-developed your skills are, the higher the chances.

Show Genuine Interest in the Remote Company you're Applying to

Taking the extra time and putting in that extra effort to craft a high-quality application will help you stand out. Make sure your application is tailored towards the company you're applying to and lay out what you have to offer and why you're the right fit.

Hiring managers can tell when you've copied and pasted your application to several other positions and when it's not tailored to that individual company.

So make sure you customize your application for the position and show that you've researched the company's website and/or blog to understand what they are doing and what their mission is. This will make a better impression and make you stand out more.

Where to Find Companies that Hire Remotely?

There are plenty of remote job boards where you can browse through hundreds of job postings and apply to any you see fit.

This section showcases some of the most popular job boards that advertise remote-friendly positions.

To see a complete list of remote-friendly companies, check out this comprehensive GitHub repository

Remote Ok

On Remote Ok you will find different kind of jobs listed, such as product designer, product manager, copywriter and copy editor, to name a few.

The majority of jobs, though, are software development jobs.

The website consists of hundreds of job postings and it's updated daily.

It's easy to use, without needing to sign-up anywhere or upload a CV in order to submit an application.

You can just click on the search bar at the top of the page. When you do so, you'll see a dropdown menu with a filter for the different job categories you can choose from and the number of jobs available in each category.

When you click on a link of a job posting, you'll see the full job description and then a button that says "Apply now".

When you click that button to apply for the job, you'll be redirected to the company's website.

This job board is more of a place to take a look at the different remote jobs that are available in the world. It's not meant for creating a profile of your own or submitting an application directly from the job board.

It's also one of the most impersonal job boards out there, since there is no information or a way to find out more about Remote Ok as a company, or a way to contact customer service.

Remote.co

Remote.co is another remote job board with all kind of jobs listings available. There are editing jobs, customer service and marketing jobs, and many more.

There is also a wide selection of jobs in front-end development, back-end development, and full-stack development.

In the search bar at the top of the page, enter the type of position you're searching for or the name of a company you want to work at.

You can also sign up to their newsletter to receive daily job alerts, but other than that you don't need to sign up anywhere is order to view jobs or apply to jobs.

When you apply for a job, you'll be redirected to the company's website to apply directly from there.

This remote job is more personable compared to Remote Ok, since it has more information about it and different resources available.

There are articles on remote work, remote worker's rights, and even different online courses you can take.

We Work Remotely

On We Work Remotely you'll find lists of jobs in sales, marketing, software development and more.

There are jobs available in front-end development, back-end development, full-stack development, and in DevOps and Systems administration.

You can create an account by providing your email address and setting a password. This way you'll be notified about new job openings and specifically jobs that are tailored to your area of interest.

The site also provides advanced search filters, where you enter the job title, the region where you want to work, and the time zone you're in, as well as the job type you're looking for. From there you can choose either contract work or full-time work.

When you apply for a position you will be redirected to the company's website you're applying to.

Remotive

On Remotive there are a variety of different remote tech roles available.

There are listings for developer roles, customer support, customer service, sales, management, product design, product management, and more.

This job board is also focused on tech and there are filters available where you can view the different job categories available.

A new feature of theirs is the ability to hide the jobs that require applicants to be US-based and work remotely from a US timezone.

You can also use keywords, such as a specific skill or job title, to filter through all the different posts.

It also has a mailing list where you can receive daily job updates.

AngelList

AngelList lists mostly tech startup jobs.

There, you can create your own profile where you'll be able to inlcude your skills and information about yourself.

You can also set your desired salary and the kind of culture you want a company to have.

Then, once your profile is set up you'll be able to apply to jobs directly from AngelList, without being redirected to the company's website.

Companies will be able to connect you with by finding you through your profile and contacting you.

There are advanced search filters, to filter through the different jobs available.

When browsing though jobs on AngelList, you can also view the salary and stock options of jobs.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow Remote Developer Jobs lists only developer roles that are done remotely.

It includes an advanced filter that helps you really tailor your search to best fit your needs and what you are looking for.

Here are some examples of what is available with the advanced filter:

• You can include up to ten tags of technologies you like working with and ten technologies you dislike working with.
• You can include companies you like and companies you want to avoid and exclude from your job search.
• You can include a minimum salary range you're expecting to get.
• You can enter your level of seniority and experience.
• You can select wether you require a visa sponsorship and want to relocate to a different country.
• Also, you can select what job type you're looking for, whether it's contract work, a full time position, or an internship.

You don't need to create a profile. When you apply for a position, you'll be redirected to the company's website.

LinkedIn Jobs

On LinkedIn you get to create your own profile where you include your work history, highlight your skills, and write a headline that summarizes your achievements and past job experiences.

A good way to stand out is to share any articles you've written, and share other interesting and informative content.

LinkedIn is a way to connect directly with companies by reaching out to recruiters.

You can also let recruiters know you are available for hire. Specifially, you can inform them on what kind of postion you're looking for and whether you prefer to work remotely.

This is a feature you can add to your profile but it's private and is only visible to them.

Often if your profile is impressive, recruiters will reach out to you and direct message you.

Here are some resources for you to create a stand-out LinkedIn profile:

• How To Build An Amazing LinkedIn Profile 15+ Proven Tips
• How to Use LinkedIn to Get Your First Developer Job – A Step-by-Step Guide

Conclusion

The work landscape is starting to change and remote work is increasing in popularity and demand.

In this article, you saw some ways to stand out to remote companies as an early career developer.

You also saw some of the most popular job boards that feature remote-friendly companies.

Thanks for reading and good luck with your remote job search!

I have curated a list of 25 sites for remote work. Whether you are looking for part time, full time, or freelance work, these are the best sites to look into.

Here is the complete list. Once you find a website that interests you, click that link and it will jump you down to a more detailed description of that website.

1. Arc
2. We Work Remotely
3. Skip The Drive
4. Power to Fly
5. Remote OK
6. Remotive
7. FlexJobs
8. Dribble
9. AngelList
10. Remote.co
11. JustRemote
12. Virtual Vocations
13. Pangian
14. Working Nomads
15. Jobspresso
16. Outsourcely
17. Landing.Jobs
18. Authentic Jobs
19. Stack Overflow
20. Gun.io
21. Idealist
22. Fiverr
23. Upwork
24. Freelancer
25. freelancermap

Arc

Arc is a site dedicated to remote developer jobs. Arc provides many free resources including a job search by tech stack, a resume guide, salary explorer, virtual events, and interview questions.

You can also browse through Arc's list of Top Remote Companies that are hiring right now.

We Work Remotely

We Work Remotely offers free job postings in frontend, backend, full stack, mobile, design and more. You also have access to their events, forum, and slack group.

Skip The Drive

Skip The Drive offers free job listings in the areas of development, project management, sales and more. This site also offers a list of Micro Job Sites, a Remote Job Savings Calculator, and a Job Application Tracking spreadsheet.

Power to Fly

Power to Fly specializes in connecting candidates from underrepresented backgrounds to potential employers. When you create an account you'll have access to job listings, career events, coaching sessions, mentorship and more.

Remote OK

Remote Ok offers free job listings in development, online teaching, design and more. This site also has a separate page for just freelancers where you can create a profile and have access to thousands of jobs.

Remotive

Remotive offers free job postings in the areas of IT, development, design, QA and more. Remotive also provides career guides, webinars, and paid access to the Remotive community.

FlexJobs

FlexJobs is a subscription site for remote part-time, full time and freelance jobs. If you are skeptical about paying for job postings, then check out their Better Business Bureau rating and reviews.

This is the current pricing list for the FlexJobs subscriptions.

Members have access to their job listings, events, and articles. FlexJobs also offers career coaching, resume reviews, and mock interviews for an additional cost.

Dribble

While Dribble is mainly known as a place for freelance designers to post their work, there is also a section for remote graphic design jobs.

AngelList

AngelList offers software job listings at startup companies. You will need to create an account in order to read the full job descriptions and apply.

Remote.co

Remote.co offers free job postings in the areas of IT, development, design, QA and more. If you upgrade to the premium service, then you have access to more job postings, career coaching, and resume reviews.

JustRemote

JustRemote offers free job postings in the areas of DevOps, development, design and more. They also offer an online resume builder to help you get to the interview stage.

For an added cost, JustRemote has a feature called PowerSearch that provides you with additional job postings that are normally hidden from the general public.

Virtual Vocations

Virtual Vocations is a free service that provides you with remote job listings in development, technical writing, QA, project management and more.

Virtual Vocations also offers a paid subscription service which includes courses, webinars, and career coaching sessions.

Pangian

Pangian offers free remote job listings in the areas of development, IT, sales and more. You will need to create a free account in order to access the job details.

Pangian also offers free career tips and a community forum. For an additional $149.99 (US dollars), you can have access to the one on one resume and CV audit.

Working Nomads

Working Nomads offers free job listings in development, design, DevOps, project management and more.

Jobspresso

Jobspresso offers thousands of free listings in development, design, DevOps, customer service, and more.

Outsourcely

Outsourcely ensures that job candidates are paired with the right company. Create an account and browse through thousands of postings in web development, mobile, design, customer service and more.

Landing.Jobs

Landing.jobs connects independent contractors with remote jobs. Create an account, go through the Landing.jobs evaluation process, and then start applying for remote work.

Authentic Jobs

Authentic jobs offers free listings in web development, mobile, project management, design and more.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is mainly known as a place for tech questions and answers but they also have a jobs section. For remote work, just select the remote options in the search parameters.

Gun.io

Gun.io specializes in connecting developers with software companies. Create an account, apply for jobs, go through interviews and start working.

Idealist

Idealist is a site that posts hundreds of jobs for non-profits and organizations that want to create change in the world. For remote work, make sure to choose that option in the search parameters.

Freelance projects and micro-jobs

Fiverr

Fiverr is site where you can create a list of services and offer them to Fiverr's global audience.

Upwork

Upwork is a place for freelancers to bid on jobs, sell their projects, and connect with recruiters.

Freelancer

Freelancer specializes in connecting clients with freelancers. Freelancers can search through thousands of projects and make bids.

freelancermap

freelancermap specializes in connecting freelancers with clients all around the world. Freelancers can create an account and bid on projects that match their skills and experience.

##

In early March of 2020 my company asked staff to work from home because of the spread of Coronavirus.

At first, the change from a traditional office setting to remote work was jarring: my very small New York City apartment didn’t enable a comfortable work area in which to write, code, or perform proactive tasks.

Over time I did my best to adjust and, like many of my colleagues, spent time searching for ways to adapt to new routines.

Make the most of the situation, I frequently reminded myself.

Given the prevalence of coronavirus New York, I knew I would be indoors for months on end. This led me to an idea: I challenged myself to learn a new skill. I thought that learning something challenging and different would be enjoyable and a much needed and reliable distraction.

I spent time reflecting on what I wanted to learn. I then conducted research and came up with a short list of skills I thought I could develop during quarantine that met the following criteria:

1. Learning the skill should be fun
2. Once acquired, I should be able to use the skill more broadly in my life
3. The skill should help me build something useful or of value to others
4. And lastly, I should learn the skill through self-learning online.

Given these guideposts, and my circle of competence, I created a list of things I would be interested in diving deeper into.

My initial list included:

• learning to play the guitar,
• becoming a reasonably competent amatuer chef capable of making a diverse array of nutritious meals,
• improving upon my very rusty Mandarin skills acquired while studying abroad in China,
• building a website - more or less from scratch - to help people, like me, working from home.

After consulting with friends and reviewing various online tutorials, I chose to build my first website. Instantly, I was hooked.

I have learned so much along the way and want to now share some of these core lessons with you.

My story is not yet complete as the site that I developed is still growing and I am learning more by the week.

There are many resources online on how to build a website or monetize a blog. This post is not that.

I want to focus on a few higher level topics that I became aware of - and that you should know - before diving deep into a website project of your own.

Insight #1: When building a website, build around a topic you are passionate about

When I started building WFHAdviser.com, I was essentially building an online resource that helped me solve a series of problems that I was acutely aware of.

Even if traffic was minimal, my thinking went, the site would still be useful for me and a few colleagues struggling with basic questions like:

• How to negotiate new benefits and perks while working remotely?
• How to best set up a home office on a budget?
• Ways to mitigate stress or maintain a comfortable posture when working in a bedroom?

I found the process of creating content for the site deeply rewarding.

Not only was it fun to write on these topics, but I got to learn more about what people cared about and what challenges they were facing in home office environments.

I did qualitative research and called friends and spoke with them about how they were handling remote work. I did quantitative research and looked at search query trends to better understand what people were searching for online.

This process was laborious. Nights and weekends became dedicated to learning more about the work from home space. I translated these learnings into content that I would then share with important people (friends, family, peers) in my life. These people, in turn, shared my site with others.

Getting e-mails and messages from friends of friends or former colleagues about how my blogs helped them successfully work from home accelerated my interest in building more resources, guides, and content that could help these readers.

So if you want to build a website, make sure to start a site in a vertical you care about. Take time to understand what you are building, and why, and ensure your digital fingerprints are across it in detail: take ownership of what the site says, how it looks, and whom it helps.

The flywheel starts with passion. The list of possible niches is infinite. For me it is the work from home space.

Insight #2: Speed matters, so move quickly

The first version of the website looked so-so at best. It would be generous to call it a glorified landing page with a few links. The website was missing features and functionality I knew I wanted to include but that I couldn’t complete upon launch.

Some of the content that I wrote needed edits, but I placed these blogs on the site anyway. A few of my links, unfortunately, led to 404 errors.

Why am I candidly sharing the shortcomings of the site at launch?

Because I believe that speed to market matters if you have an obsession with helping users.

Showing a bias towards action and insisting on high standards are not mutually exclusive concepts. You should have a vision for a site and launch it when it's not yet complete knowing that future improvements will yield better results.

From the website's launch in March 2020 until August 2020, I performed roughly 1,000 edits, improvements, and fixes. Had I waited five months to get everything “right” tens of thousands of people would not have gotten their questions answered or learned about strategies to work from home successfully.

The flywheel needs initial momentum to get moving.

Insight #3: Earn the trust of users

My final key learning is that users need to trust a website (and the site’s authors) in order to spend time on its pages and absorb the site’s content.

When users first came to my site, I noticed high bounce rates. Given how empty the site was, this was not surprising.

But after ample work and site improvements, people actually spent more time looking at the guides I wrote and the resources I cultivated. My attention to detail increased as the titles of my pieces became indexed on Google.

I found the experience of earning user trust deeply rewarding. I reviewed three metrics weekly: how much time was spent on each page, website abandonment rates, and bounce rates.

As I made general and specific website improvements, these operational metrics improved. I replaced large image files with smaller ones to reduce latency and load times. I optimized the site for speed.

I became obsessed not with how many people visited the site but the amount of time they spent there. I used time on site as a proxy for how useful and helpful my content was. As my visitors demonstrated to me that their experiences were getting better, I knew I was headed in the right direction.

The flywheel needs trust to turn.

Wrapping up

Spending long periods of time in quarantine gave me time to develop a newfound skill, website development. This skill has unlocked a new passion (helping people working from home) in a newly emerging vertical (remote work).

A world where people are educated about how to work successfully from home is a world I want to live in - and one that I am on an ongoing mission to create.

This article isn’t going to tell you about saving your neck with a Roost stand, or your wrists with a split keyboard - I’ve already done that. This article is about saving your brain – let's call it technical ergonomics.

When I first began to program full time, I found myself constantly tired from the mental exertion. Programming is hard! Thankfully, you can take some solace in knowing it gets easier with practice, and with a great supporting cast.

Some very nice folks who preceded us came up with tools to make the difficult bits of communicating with computers much easier on our poor human meat-brains.

I invite you to explore these super helpful technical tools. They’ll improve your development set up and alleviate much of the mental stress of programming. You soon won’t believe you could have done without them.

Not your average syntax highlighting

If you’re still working with syntax highlighting that just picks out variable and class names for you, that’s cute. Time to turn it up a notch.

A screenshot of Kabukichō with syntax highlighting upgrades.

In all seriousness, syntax highlighting can make it much easier to find what you’re looking for on your screen: the current line, where your current code block starts and ends, or the absolute game-changing which-bracket-set-am-I-in highlight.

I primarily use Visual Studio Code, but similar extensions can be found for the major text editors.

Here are my favorites:

• Bracket Pair Colorizer highlights sequential bracket pairs in different matching colors, making the pain of picking through nested brackets and parentheses a thing of the past.
• TODO Highlight effectively removes any excuse you may have had for unintentionally committing TODO and FIXME comments by making them really easy to see. You can even add your own custom keywords to be highlighted (I suggest wtf, but you didn’t hear it from me.)
• Indented Block Highlighting puts an easy-to-distinguish but unobtrusive highlight behind your current indented code block, so you can see just where that if ends and why that last else isn’t doing anything at all.
• Highlight Line puts a (slightly too) bright line where you last left your cursor. You can customize the line’s appearance - I set the borderWidth of mine to 1px.

The theme pictured in Visual Studio Code above is Kabukichō. I made it.

Use Git hooks

I previously brought you an interactive pre-commit checklist in the style of infomercials that’s both fun and useful for reinforcing the quality of your commits. But that’s not all!

Git hooks are scripts that run automatically at pre-determined points in your workflow. Use them well, and you can save a ton of brainpower.

A pre-commit hook remembers to do things like lint and format code, and even runs local tests for you before you indelibly push something embarrassing.

Hooks can be a little annoying to share (the .git/hooks directory isn’t tracked and thus omitted when you clone or fork a repository) but there’s a framework for that: the confusingly-named pre-commit framework, which allows you to create a shareable configuration file of Git hook plugins, not just for pre-commit.

I spend a majority of my time these days coding in Python, so here is my current favorite .pre-commit-config.yaml:

fail_fast: true
repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
    rev: v3.1.0 # Use the ref you want to point at
    hooks:
      - id: detect-aws-credentials
      - id: end-of-file-fixer
      - id: trailing-whitespace
  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
    rev: 19.3b0
    hooks:
      - id: black
  - repo: https://github.com/asottile/blacken-docs
    rev: v1.7.0
    hooks:
      - id: blacken-docs
        additional_dependencies: [black==19.3b0]
  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/mirrors-mypy
    rev: v0.780
    hooks:
      - id: mypy
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: isort
        name: isort
        stages: [commit]
        language: system
        entry: isort
        types: [python]
      - id: black
        name: black
        stages: [commit]
        language: system
        entry: black
        types: [python]

There are tons of supported hooks to explore.

Use a type system

If you write in languages like Python and JavaScript, get yourself an early birthday present and start using a static type system. Not only will this help improve the way you think about code, it can help make type errors clear before running a single line.

For Python, I like using mypy for static type checking. You can set it up as a pre-commit hook (see above) and it’s supported in Visual Studio Code too.

TypeScript is my preferred way to write JavaScript. You can run the compiler on the command line using Node.js (see instructions in the repo), it works pretty well with Visual Studio Code out of the box, and of course there are multiple options for extension integrations.

Quit unnecessarily beating up your meat-brain

I mean, you wouldn’t stand on your head all day to do your work. It would be rather inconvenient to read things upside down all the time (at least until your brain adjusted), and in any case you’d likely get uncomfortably congested in short order.

Working without taking advantage of the technical ergonomic tools I’ve given you today is a little like unnecessary inversion - why would you, if you don’t have to?

Whether or not you have worked remotely before, you’ve likely never had to share your “home office” with your partner and two children.

Before quarantine, a study showed that engineers preferred working from home and felt more productive than they were in the office. However, over a month into quarantine, many software developers sharing small spaces are starting to look back at those late nights in the office longingly.

By adopting some realistic tips along with help from supportive employers, developers can regain some focus, return a little bit closer to peak productivity, and achieve a state of mental wellness.

My team at Coderbyte surveyed 150+ software developers to better understand how they were coping with social distancing. The results illustrate how many software developers have more time to code and even work on side projects, but many are also struggling to maintain focus and productivity.

We also interviewed a senior software engineer, Geoff Chin, with a wife and two children under the age of four to understand what it really looks like to shelter in place with two full time working parents.

We captured his reactions to the adrenaline-fueled optimism of tips and tricks from other experts below, and then provide recommendations for employers:

How realistic is it for developers coping with distractions to...

Set a schedule?

Sounds reasonable enough, right? Work is scheduled, school is scheduled, why not quarantine too? Here’s what we learned:

“The first week we were excited to be together. We had every hour blocked off with time for Legos, lunch, outdoors time, arts and crafts just waiting for the department of education to start online classes.

After the first week our schedules quickly broke down. The kids were bored easily, our work schedules didn’t align with the kids’ schedules. And then class started. You think Zoom meetings are bad with adults? They are way worse with kids.”

Since rigid schedules are out of the question, maintain a flexible mindset and split up the day so that one parent is fully available at all times.

Signal to kids when you cannot be interrupted, by using physical separation?

As many articles noted, when space is limited this can be difficult. However, even within a 500 square foot apartment, this family has found “tag-teaming” childcare as the best way to make it work.

“We thought we could work and watch the kids at the same time — not a chance. We invested in proper furniture to set up workspaces at home so my wife and I can tag-team watching the kids.”

Stockpile activities that don’t require adult supervision?

“All activities need a certain amount of adult supervision when your kids are under four.

I talked to my employer and let them know early on that my kids are going to be in meetings. I said, ‘I’ll do my best to mute when I can, but I need to be physically with them during the day.’”

Take time for yourself?

“That’s a hard question,” he said, when asked about carving out time for himself. Geoff said he started trying some “meditation and yoga stuff” in the morning, but that is quickly interrupted by the kids running around.

“Time alone is very difficult right now.”

During Covid-19, supportive leaders can...

Now that you have insight into what it’s like to be a software engineer trying to cope with distractions, how can you show up for your employees knowing the stresses they deal with at home?

Reach out to your people and check up on them.

You might not know if your employee is having a rough time and it can be difficult to reach out, especially right now.

Demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. By being proactive you show that you are available to support them. Be the one to ask “How are you, really?”

Allow periods of focused, uninterrupted time for your team to work

Clearly communicate the expectations for the week and encourage time for focused work. Lead by example and block off hours in your schedule for “heads down work,” encouraging your team to do the same.

Paul Graham refers to this working style as the “Maker’s Schedule.” Unlike business stakeholders, developers are far more productive when they limit the amount of context switching throughout the day. Instead of scheduling meetings throughout the day, block off several hours to accomplish work, uninterrupted.

Remote workers are 20% more likely to say they complete all their daily tasks every or most days.

Continue to develop your company culture, remotely

All of the fun happy hours, sports leagues, and clubs you used to offer in person? Find a way to keep them alive online.

This could mean offering a stipend for takeout where everyone can eat lunch together, or a virtual happy hour with a game.

Oftentimes this is the only connection your employees have with their peers beyond meetings. Create opportunities to keep your team’s spirits high.

Give permission to go offline

This might sound obvious, but with increased workloads and high stress working environments, it is difficult for employees to know when to shut off. Give permission for nights and weekends off and encourage time offline.

People who work from home are 17% more likely to leave work “feeling accomplished about what they set out to do”.

As with everything, there are pros and cons to remote working. While adjusting and re-adjusting to a work from home culture, it is important to understand the impact of quarantine and living through a global pandemic.

Unfortunately no amount of guides and resources is going to be able to help your household adjust quite like trial and error. The good news is that you are not alone.

Continue to try different tricks and tips as the situation evolves and keep the lines of communication open with your manager so you can get the support you need. If you suddenly find yourself with more time, consider practicing your coding skills to level up.

If you are an employer, do not be shy to reach out and check in with your team. They need a steady hand and guidance now more than ever.

Make sure to check our guide to remote software development during Covid-19, bookmark our continuously updated article with software development data, and keep testing out different ways to keep building culture and connection to prioritize the mental and physical health of your company.

This article is intended for two audiences: people who need to write self-evaluations, and people who need to provide feedback to their colleagues.

For the purpose of this article I provide specific examples of how to recognize and quantify impact. I hope you can leverage these concepts to write more holistic and thoughtful feedback for your peers.

Key Work From Home Skill: Show Impact by Being Goal Oriented

Here is a list of behaviors tied to impact that you will want to demonstrate (if you are working from home) or that you should evaluate if managing a remote workforce.

1. Completes assignments correctly and on time. Aware of details. Responds effectively to clear direction and follows set procedures.
2. Capable of addressing a wide variety of problems and managing unexpected circumstances.
3. Sees underlying principles, patterns, or themes in an array of related information.

Sample Feedback - Junior Staff

Jennifer assumes full care of procedures, obligations, and activities. She gives prompt answers to inquiries and solves urgent issues, escalating where possible.

Jennifer meets deadlines regularly and yields good results. She also performs well and maintains a positive attitude under pressure.

Jennifer fosters a culture of speed and simplicity on her team and amongst stakeholders (both internal and external) and aligns vision with clear, stretching goals for team members.

She is a respected remote member of the team. She thinks creatively and out of the box and gives guidance to her peers and colleagues that can bring out the best results for our team.

Sample Feedback - Mid-Career Staff

Jennifer completes individual tasks with little or no follow-up and consistently prioritizes tasks through to completion. She regularly exhibits strategic foresight and develops strategic strategy around key objectives.

She leads successfully (both with and without authority) and inspires other stakeholders to do the same.

Jennifer remains versatile by taking into consideration conflicting interests and business objectives, and makes choices on which goals should be prioritized.

Sample Feedback - Senior Member of Team

Jennifer articulates a long-term strategic vision of what our business looks like in terms of global influence and leverages the necessary tools at her disposal for success.

She works successfully and delegates thoughtfully. She ensures that all team members contribute to our goals. She offers advice and instruction on how to handle conflicting interests and priorities.

I have worked with Jennifer for one year and seen her manage her team and resources effectively to deliver results on assignments.

Sample Feedback - Executive

Jennifer is a strong executive. She brings important positive improvements to our company in structure, culture, and organization.

Through her ventures and programs, she generates global influence, and organizational progress that leads to greater profits and impact in the market.

She expresses goals clearly to ensure that the right things are achieved and shows support for long-term strategic projects, successful investments, and supporting members of her team.

Key Work From Home Skill: Show Expertise by Using the Right Skills for the Right Task at the Right Time

Here is a list of behaviors tied to showing expertise that you will want to demonstrate (if you are working from home) or that you should evaluate if managing a remote workforce.

1. Capable of addressing a wide variety of problems and managing unexpected circumstances.
2. Sees fundamental concepts, trends, or themes in a variety of relevant material.
3. Builds rapports by listening to, discussing, and negotiating with internal and external stakeholders.
4. Find ways to collaborate on their projects and career development, and benefit from other perspectives.

Sample Feedback - Junior Staff

John has knowledge and experience that helps his team. He handles operations efficiently with little guidance. He shows a strong ability to think objectively for himself and for our company. He shows critical thought, putting together insight, knowledge and perspective while making decisions or generating results.

He knows how to use various tools, resources and relationships to improve our operations. For example, he builds a long list of target opportunities and is exhaustive in his approach. his efforts lead to more demand for our products and help our sales and revenue accelerate.

John selects suitable methodologies and approaches based on his good judgement and analytical skills and applies methods in his field of expertise to innovate. He frequently suggests new ways to solve challenges. This is valued by the team.

He is an emerging leader, and has shown signs of influencing the team from his work to adopt emerging best practices.

Sample Feedback - Mid-Career Staff

John recognizes the central function of our business, and is able to manage conversations independently and create supporting resources to convey the importance of operating in the market for our organization.

He constantly aims to maximize the efficiency of the deals / projects / products being launched, as described by key results he tracks.

John ensures that all people interested in a project or endeavor are kept informed about changes and plans and concerns. Others' ideas are incorporated and answered without compromising relationships.

He is a team leader. He operates from evidence and data and a deep knowledge base and remains open to innovative strategies for resolving needs or solving problems.

John is a compassionate and thoughtful leader who sets clear and actionable targets and works with his colleagues to achieve goals, build pipeline, and create new business strategies.

Sample Feedback - Senior Member of Team

John has an open mind that everybody appreciates. He seeks feedback from others, both from within our team and from the outside. He knows how to develop an end to end business model and proposal independently which leads to stakeholder satisfaction and customers approval.

This was clearly illustrated in the last deal / project / product in which John was involved, as he handled objections effectively. His peers were left satisfied, and so were our clients.

Considered as a subject matter expert and trusted advisor by clients and internal teams, John has an expertise in leading negotiation discussions and internal meetings which explain the work and vision of our team. John explicitly encourages and persuades others to follow and accomplish goals, and to accept new positions or views.

John has a warm and open approach to communication. He is open and energetic, a deep thinker, and passionate. I find my interactions with him both inspiring and motivating.

He always shows a bias towards action and a willingness to roll up his sleeves to jump into meaningful conversations. His attitude and approach reflect favorably on our organization and how he handles herself has contributed tremendously to our team’s culture.

John is an emerging executive. He integrates executive direction into every decision and consultation. He advocates for and positively represents other programs and services when working with stakeholders and is skilled at attracting and retaining talent to our team.

Sample Feedback - Executive

John leads the team to produce results expertly, while offering a scale-enabling structure and operation. He helps team leaders prioritize work and business opportunities, and offers constructive coaching without micromanaging team members.

John knows how to create a business that's best in class, right for our market. By leading and empowering our company and business unit effectively, John creates major business effects. He is experienced in shaping opinions across levels, both internally and externally, and is competent in handling career growth opportunities for team members.

John is a successful executive because, when appropriate, he intervenes to eliminate roadblocks at all levels of the company, both internally and externally. He exhibits strategic leadership, and is frequently active in initiatives and discussions that drive value beyond his core functional field for our business.

Key Work From Home Skill: Leadership

Here is a list of behaviors that leaders demonstrate and that you will want to emulate (if you are working from home) or that you should evaluate if managing a remote workforce.

1. Lead individuals or programs to achieve desired outcomes and long-term goals
2. Communicate by listening to, discussing, and negotiating with colleagues at all levels.

Sample Feedback - Junior Staff

Sarah explores opportunities for cooperation and learning from other viewpoints on both her core work and in the advancement of her career.

Sarah sets simple, important, demanding, and attainable goals and has aspirations that fit with the organization's objectives.

She makes suggestions that enhance quality and productivity for the team.

Sample Feedback - Mid-Career Staff

Sarah conveys confidence. She demonstrates the capacity to triumph over obstacles to achieve her goals. She encourages and persuades others to seek and accomplish objectives, and takes on new positions or views where appropriate.

In designing practical strategies for achieving goals, she combines other people's ideas and desires, and gets more senior stakeholder recognition and support for those strategies.

Sarah sees the potential in others and takes opportunities to apply and develop that potential.

Sample Feedback - Senior Member of Team

Sarah discovers and develops other influential leaders within the organization, guiding her team's growth and culture.

She interacts and collaborates well with different stakeholders in the business and industry. She connects mission, vision, principles, priorities and tactics to the team's day-to-day work and gets buy-in from other senior stakeholders.

Sample Feedback - Executive

Sarah builds relationships with internal and external leaders to allow business opportunities to come forward, naturally and at accelerated timelines.

She knows the costs and profits of her business unit and promotes talent from within to help improve core operating metrics.

She is a consummate strategist and leads several teams, directly and indirectly managed by other managers.

Conclusion

When evaluating remote staff use the above guidance to think holistically about how these workers are adding value relative to their experience and position.

These sample pieces of feedback can be used to showcase how a remote worker adds value to your clients, your firm, and your culture.

Remote work is a fast emerging segment of the labor market. How to embrace this shift as an employer - and find, recruit, and empower remote staff - is a question many companies and hiring managers are grappling with.

I have hired staff that works remotely. I have been hired to work remotely. In both situations I have learned lessons along the way. I want to share these lessons with you.

Perhaps you are tasked with attracting remote talent. Maybe you are the talent. In either case, remote work requires a deliberate recruiting framework as the types of skills that remote workers need to succeed are slightly different than those skills needed to thrive in a traditional workplace environment.

First, some relevant context: I have over a decade of startup and large tech work experience and have worked from home in various capacities - as an individual contributor, company founder, and general manager.

I have also conducted scores of remote interviews, extended offer letters to remote staff, and helped employees onboard who will work from their homes.

When hiring remote workers, I look for robust interpersonal and communication skills. Oftentimes remote work requires a person to demonstrate additional maturity and focus. They need to spend their time and the company’s resources well, with limited daily guidance. From my experience remote workers who excel have high intrinsic motivation and are self-starters.

5 skills remote workers should have - and how to find them

The following framework can help you probe for behaviors that you may want your staff to possess and will enable you to more analytically recruit and evaluate talent.

This framework is useful for candidates who want to prepare for remote job interviews or think holistically about skills to develop further when seeking remote work.

High performing remote workers demonstrate a:

1. Bias towards action,
2. Strong emotional maturity,
3. Track record of driving projects or objectives to successful conclusions,
4. Communication cadence that prioritizes that the right things get done,
5. Persuasive advocacy when working with internal and external stakeholders.

If you value these attributes here are questions you can ask to better understand a candidate’s skill set.

How to confirm a bias towards action

Consider asking: explain a time when you have gone above and beyond expectations to solve a problem. How did you identify the problem? What was the outcome?

These answers can provide great insights into how deeply the candidate has thought about past problems and how they might solve issues that arise in the future.

I value diversity in thought, experience, and background. The beauty of showing a bias towards action is that such a mindset can shine through in a large array of activities.

A bias towards action need not be demonstrated just by work examples, though it can be. I once interviewed a candidate who showed a bias towards action by taking care of her sibling when her parents were unable to do so. Another candidate showed a bias towards action by suggesting solutions to a client’s operational problem which helped secure a new contract.

How to confirm ability to resolve ambiguous situations

At times working from home can be isolating and force staff to solve complex problems with limited managerial guidance.

If you want staff that can escalate work appropriately and have the self-awareness to resolve high-ambiguity situations, consider asking: What’s something you’ve achieved that you’re most proud of and why? When were you last frustrated by work, and how did you handle it? What is one thing you would like to change about your current company or role? How has our interview process been so far?

These questions probe for self-awareness. Being self-aware helps a person make informed decisions.

How to confirm ability to take ownership of projects

The social and technological foundation of collaboration has gotten incredibly good over the last decade as a result of new digital technologies and communication tools.

Yet remote work still necessitates that an individual drives projects or objectives to successful conclusions and takes full ownership of processes, tasks, and responsibilities.

To probe for these skills, consider asking: When did you exceed your management’s expectations? What happened, and why? How have you demonstrated thought leadership or engaged in projects that added value to your clients or internal stakeholders?

How to confirm excellent communication skills

Remote workers - more so than traditional office workers - need to communicate priorities that ensure the right things are getting done because informal conversations and water-cooler chats are less frequent.

Workers add value by understanding the cadence and frequency of written and verbal communication. As many Freecoders know, an engineer writes and submits code digitally. A reviewer simply needs to have access to the same Pull Request. So it is up to the remote worker to provide clarity and content since they are unable to showcase their whiteboard.

Consider asking: What would your colleagues say is your strongest communication skill? How would you go about simplifying a complex issue in order to explain it to a client or colleague? How would you persuade someone to see things your way? Why?

How to confirm relationship building skills

You will likely want your remote staff to advocate for and positively represent your team and business when working with internal and external stakeholders.

I ask: share an experience in which you successfully advocated for a client to resolve a crisis? What would you have done differently in hindsight? Please share with me an example of how you helped coach or mentor someone. What improvements did you see in the person's knowledge or skills?

Final thoughts on remote work

Like other sustained market shifts (i.e. the personal computer revolution), remote work is going to define how many of us, our firms, and our colleagues will work.

Before hiring staff you need a pipeline of candidates. Before that, you need to know what skills prospective candidates must possess to thrive in your firm. Only you will know what you need from new hires. In general it’s a good idea to understand candidates and their business fit.

Be open to candidates and answers that are diverse and varied – value can be demonstrated in many different ways.

If you use these questions as a guide and let yourself be open to new responses that demonstrate potential impact, you likely will acquire some very strong talent that will add value in the short and long term.

In this time of the Coronavirus pandemic you are likely worrying about what may come next – a health crisis? An economic crisis?

Well, this is a reality that we must all face and prepare for.

Millions of workers from government organizations and private firms are experiencing remote work for the first time. As more people become infected by COVID-19, it can be difficult to know what to do.

Yet many experts suggest that this could be an opportunity to stay intent on your work even when you're away from your workplace and co-workers. It’s time to make a real impression.

If you believe in being proactive during this lockdown, then this time working from home is the opportunity to explore, learn, create and collaborate. According to Statista, the COVID-19 outbreak has led to an increased interest in remote working.

Tips to Improve Your Productivity While Working from Home

Since so many more people are working from home now, I’ve listed the best tips for how to stay productive when you're working from home.

1. Set your daily routine as if you're still going to work

While working from home, try to stick to your set routines that you were following before, as much as possible. Your home is good for relaxation but might not be so good for work.

At your home, you’re used to watching daytime TV and having lazy weekend mornings. To stay productive while working at home you'll need to set a routine. For example, try to wake up at a certain time, and then set your lunch time, dinner time, exercise time, and of course work time.

The best thing you can do is to follow the same routine you were previously following before lockdown. In the morning you can take a shower, get dressed in office clothes, and help your body understand it's work time not sleep time.

Set your work hours, and try to stick with those hours as much as possible. You can schedule office meetings in the morning to kickstart your day.

Set up the workspace available to you. Maybe it’s a part of your living room, a desk or a sofa. Mark your territory and make it your own space for work time. Have all the important things on hand such as your laptop, your chargers, pens and papers.

Get comfortable with the setting and develop the mindset that “In this place, I’m in work mode.” And when you’re not working, avoid spending too much time in this work area.

2. Declutter stuff that distracts you during work time

It is not important to always follow this rule, to be honest. But when you work from home, there’s a lot of “stuff” around you such as TV, your kitchen, kids' stuff, and so on. All this will remind you of your household chores.

When you're working from home, you have to manage work as well as deal with those chores. Ready or not, when you’re working remotely, you’ll get distracted easily.

To stay productive whenever you work from home, try to clear your workspace from the things that distract you. This will help you stay focused on your work.

Additionally, try to avoid working in bed. This will make you sleepy for the whole day. But if you have no choice and have to work in bed, you can create a sense of “working at your office” by getting coffee, arranging tools, and whatever makes you feel awake.

Still, it's not a good idea to make your bedroom as a workspace, as it should only be used to sleep or relax. Try to set up a workspace in your study room or living room or somewhere else – it can be your dining table.

3. Emphasize communication with your colleagues

Use video conferencing to avoid feeling isolated. To stay productive while working from home, you should keep connected with your team and colleagues in a more intentional manner. Video calls may not be comfortable all the time for everyone, but it can be worth the benefit of seeing your colleagues during this lockdown.

Video conferencing is an easy way to build meaningful human interactions if remote work is hampering your productivity and your mental and emotional well-being. You can use email for more formal sharing of information, documents, or resources. Instant messaging is good for formal check-ins as well as quick communication that needs a quick response.

Video calls on Skype and Google Hangout are good for meetings with groups of people. They can also help you make a connection between voices and faces.

You can also do one-on-one check-ins on IM chat, video call, or text message to feel more connected with employees or colleagues. Getting feedback on your work during remote work is also possible on quick video chats. Doing so keeps you motivated and keeps you updated on what's going on in the office.

4. Looping back to self care to feel more productive

When you’re alone it's often harder to feel productive. This can be a downside to working from home alone all day. To help combat this, you can talk to family members or roommates during your work-time to avoid anxiety and depression. Avoid spending hours at your desk, and pay attention to your overall health.

Walking around your home or outside your home for a quick break is a good idea to keep your body moving and refreshed. It enables you to increase your productivity when you return to work.

One of the most challenging parts of working from home is this lack of communication and socialization. There's nothing like chatting with your coworkers or friends that you enjoy working with and catching up throughout the day. During this lockdown, it is important to make time to (virtually) connect with others, whether it’s your spouse, kids, friends, colleagues, and others.

This is the best possible way to stay calm and resilient in this situation. We have to support one another to get through this hard time of social distancing and lockdown.

5. Be mindful of work plans, discipline, and motivation

Working from home requires discipline, attention, and self-motivation. It's a good idea to set up some work plans or make a list for yourself. Segment out what tasks are most important for you when you are in your work hours. That way you don’t spend your whole day cleaning your house and neglecting key tasks.

Every Monday, make a list of projects that you and your team will be working on. Establish your work time, kitchen time, family time, breaks, socializing, and other activities to keep yourself on track with your workload.

It also sends the message to your employer that you’re following a set schedule for work and home — just like you would in the office.

You should not be logged in 24/7 just because you have access to work anytime. Make yourself comfortable and allow yourself time for self-care. Try to create a work-life balance. We all need that, no matter where we are working from.

6. Must-have tools to improve your productivity

Of course, working virtually isn’t always an easy task—especially when you’ve to work from home with family, roommates, or kids. You need to stay productive during this time.

In this situation, finding the best tools for working remotely can make a big difference. Here are some useful tools and apps:

Video Conferencing Apps:

FaceTime app for one-to-one video chat.

Slack for group chat.

Zoom for better video quality & reliability.

Google Hangouts for clear, quick group video calls & chat.

GoToMeeting for business video conferencing.

Join.me for better screen sharing video chat.

Project Management Software:

Asana for managing daily work assignments and work progress graphs.

Monday for tracking the results of your assigned tasks.

Insightly for managing your contacts and work projects.

Toodledo for preparing to-do task lists with customization options.

Allthings for listing your daily tasks (custom fields available).

Design & Development Tools:

GitHub is a free development tool for coders.

Adobe Creative Cloud is a design tool with features such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator.

Atom is a free to use text editor tool.

Figma is a tool for wireframing.

Time Management Tools:

Google Calendar is a time management tool for managing your work schedule, meetings, work sessions, etc.

Pocket is a useful app that saves your content for later reading.

RescueTime is a helpful time tracker.

Toggl is a time tracker tool for daily work projects.

Calendly is an appointment scheduler tool.

Now that you’ve got the list of tools to use during work from home, it’s time to get started with these tools and tips.

Good luck!

Working from home is a reality for many in our current situation. More people than usual are working from home and splitting time with their families at the same time.

In all this, stay positive, stay productive, and stay healthy. Remember to never, ever give up.

While I can’t guarantee that you will benefit from these productivity tips while working from home, I hope they help.

I hope we all get to go back to normal soon. In the meantime, you can follow these tips to keep calm and stay productive at work.

When it comes to debugging, the tool you use is extremely important and can determine how easy is is to fix problems within your code.

In the early days, the debugging process was quite a challenge. With the distinct lack of reliable debuggers, developers turned to several hacks.

For instance, when debugging a mobile app or website, you would recreate issues on your desktop and then use Chrome developer tools and similar toolkits.

Unfortunately, these hacks were not as effective — you had to constantly shift back and forth from your desktop browser and mobile device.

Fast forward to today, and we have a powerful suite of tools that allow you to debug defective code running on a different device as if it were local code. Best of all, these remote debugging tools not only address the debugging challenges but also enhance collaboration across development teams.

In this post, I have put together the top ten remote debugging tools which can be reliably used to debug your code remotely.

Rookout

Rookout is a tool that brings agility to the debugging process. It can be used to debug JVM, Node.JS, and Python code in both serverless and containerized applications.

The beauty of Rookout lies in its ability to allow users to debug both staging and production applications quickly and securely. It eliminates the lengthy and complicated debugging processes by providing all the data needed in a matter of seconds.

The on-demand data provided by Rookout ensures developers can understand and debug issues lying within their code without coding, redeploying or restarting their applications.

With Rookout, you can remotely debug live Electron apps. Rookout’s shareable interface allows developers to set non-breaking breakpoints in troublesome Electron apps.

The tool gives you complete visibility into your app's performance, so you can trace issues and develop appropriate fixes. Rookout makes all this possible without the need to install another software on the end-user

Highlights

• Easy to get started
• Seamless Git integration
• Integrates with a range of tools including Slack, Datadog, Sentry, Sumologic, and more
• Interaction tracking and screen sharing capabilities
• Provides comprehensive debugging data in real-time

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is always a top pick for every developer working with .NET. It has a ton of features to facilitate both local and remote debugging. With this tool, you can set conditional breakpoints and log points.

It also allows you to inspect variables. For remote debugging, you will need to install the VS code remote development extension pack. This package has three extensions that provide everything you need to launch, monitor, and accelerate your remote debugging loop.

Highlights

• Free to use, cross-platform operations
• Highly active development community with Microsoft backing
• Integrated Git control
• Supports a wide array of extensions and customization options for workflow enhancement
• Automatic error checking and color coding is great

RubyMine

RubyMine is a powerful and intelligent cross-platform IDE that allows you to debug Ruby on Rails, CoffeeScript, JavaScript, CSS, ERB and HAML, and more. Its advanced built-in debugger allows you to set breakpoints and define hit conditions with ease.

JetBrains' RubyMine provides two ways to debug applications that run on remote devices. First, you can add the remote Ruby interpreter and configure mappings between local and remote project files, then launch your debugging session.

Alternatively, you can run applications on the remote device then add the Ruby interpreter.

Once done, configure mappings between files and bind to a running process. The latter is especially helpful when debugging an application that you cannot launch directly from your IDE.

Another great thing about this tool is that it allows you to launch multiple debug processes simultaneously.

Highlights

• RubyMine is based on the solid intelliJ IDEA platform
• Good support for ruby-related frameworks and technologies
• Autocomplete feature is pretty good
• Good Git integration.
• Supports multiple plugins
• Integrates seamlessly with rails

PyCharm

PyCharm is another robust IDE developed by JetBrains for Python. This intelligent code editor is equipped with remote development capabilities, including running, testing, debugging, deploying and applications on virtual machines and remote hosts.

The debugger offers several breakpoints, frames view, watches, stepping modes, remote interpreters, and a debug console.

Some amazing features of PyCharm include sophisticated auto-completion, excellent refactoring support and seamless integration with tools such as Django, IPython, Docker, Vagrant, and Pytest.

Additionally, PyCharm is a wonderful cross-platform development tool. Other than Python, it supports JavaScript, Cython, CoffeeScript, TypeScript SQL, HTML/CSS, Node.js, AngularJS, and more.

Highlights

• Awesome connectivity with multiple databases for querying within the IDE
• Searching and installing packages is easy
• Automatic code completion
• Git visualization
• Shows code errors on the fly and facilitates easy fixing

GDB

GDB can be effectively used to debug programs on another computer. To perform remote debugging, you will need to run the GDB utility in the host system. Additionally, you must run gdbserver on the target system so that the two utilities will communicate through a network or serial line using the GDB remote serial protocol.

There are two configuration options for remote debugging with GDB/gdbserver. The first involves using the remote GDB server to automatically build and upload application code to the remote machine.

The second option is using GDB remote debug where you should have the executable files.

Highlights

• Easy to use and trace faults within code
• Cross-platform and wide language support
• Effective for core dump analysis

Eclipse

Eclipse is a renowned IDE for Java development that also supports languages like Python, Ruby, C# and, PHP. The Eclipse IDE is equipped with advanced features for development and debugging, making it an all-rounded tool.

One of the most impressive features on Eclipse is the platform’s debug perspective that shows detailed debugging information such as breakpoints, variables, call stacks, and threads side by side.

Using Eclipse, you can step through program execution, suspend and resume threads, evaluate expressions and inspect values. Managing remote debugging configurations on Eclipse is quite easy and straightforward, which makes the tool more popular among developers.

Highlights

• Automatic code completion
• Good refactoring support
• Excellent navigation capability
• Helps with syntax checking for clean and efficient code
• Git Integration

Zend Studio Debugger

The Zend Studio is a professional IDE that supports PHP code editing, testing, debugging, and more.

It is tightly integrated with the Zend Server, thereby creating a complete PHP environment that facilitates easier analysis of problems detected in staging and production environments.

Zend also provides a PHP extension that users can install on web servers to debug PHP scripts. Using Zend for debugging is relatively easy – you only need to open the source code, set breakpoints in the project, and run a debug session.

Remote debugging on Zend can be done in three ways. The first option is using the Debug URL functionality on Zend Studio.

Secondly, you can use the Debug as Web Page functionality within Zend Studio. And finally, using the Zend browser toolbar on Firefox or Chrome.

Highlights

• Ability to sift through project files in just a few keystrokes
• Highly efficient and speedy platform
• Large community support
• Great for building and debugging PHP applications
• The framework is exceptionally flexible

WinPdb

WinPdb is an excellent Python debugger that works well on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems. It is compatible with both Python 2.x and Python 3.x.

This debugging tool supports smart breakpoints, namespace modification, multiple threads, embedded debugging, and encrypted communication. For remote debugging, you will need to copy rpdb2.py (Winpdb’s command-line debugger) onto the remote machine.

Once finished, start the Python script with the debugger on the remote machine. From your local device, launch the GUI and attach the script to debug. At this point, you can use the basename or full path of the script as it is on the remote device. You can learn more about debugging Python scripts with Win PDB here.

Highlights

• Supports multithread debugging
• Encrypted communication for remote debugging
• Quicker than PDB
• Easy to use GUI with breakpoints, stack/variable inspection, and more

Use the above tools to make your remote debugging experience much better. Happy coding!